Burlington Central's Ta Vontae Harris and Emmanuel Wells trap Marengo

Burlington Central seniors Ta Vontae Harris and Emmanuel Wells have played pressure defense together for a long time.

"It's been forever," Harris said. "Well, it's been since third grade."

So when the two guards became excited about defending Marengo Tuesday in a matchup of first-place teams, it had to involve their specialty — and it came with a twist.

Burlington Central altered its press and dominated from the opening tip for a 63-43 road victory in the Kishwaukee River Conference.

"We switched it up on them," Harris said. "They were expecting us to pester them more, like in the full-court. We sagged off on them."

The Rockets repeatedly alternated their press from man-to-man to full-court, three-quarters and sometimes half-court trap.

"We wanted to let them make the decisions instead of us making the decisions," Harris said. "And then we turned them over."

The 5-foot-7 Harris and 5-9 Wells made three first-quarter steals each and the Rockets forced four other first-quarter turnovers, leading to 14 points.

Burlington (22-3, 7-2) seized a 22-10 lead after a quarter and never led Marengo (18-7, 6-3) by less than eight after that.

"I thought from start to finish that was about as well as we could execute," Burlington coach Brett Porto said. "We could have cleaned up a few talk/communication problems in the first half, but other than that it was pretty clean execution on the defensive end."

Wells had 10 points and five steals while Harris finished with six points and six steals. Sophomore reserve Patrick Mayfield scored 14 points, his second straight game leading Burlington in scoring.

Mayfield scored half of his points in the second quarter as the Rockets took a 35-21 halftime lead.

"I've been working on my dribble attack," Mayfield said. "I'm focusing on my quickness and I'm getting to the basket and finishing my layups."

About the only thing the Rockets didn't do was see junior Zach Schutta score his 1,000th career point. Schutta has 990 after an eight-point night, and will try for the milestone Friday at home against Johnsburg.

"I sort of knew I wasn't going to get it due to the pressure they were putting on me," Schutta said. "They tried to triple-team me in the post when we got the ball down there, and they chased me around everywhere."

Burlington did something similar in half-court defense to Marengo scoring leader Mike Volkening.

Volkening scored 25 on Jan. 20 in Marengo's 50-46 win over the Rockets, but this time he had 14.

"We played up in the gap, so when he started to drive we slid and sort of double-teamed him," Schutta said.

Afterward, the Rockets became big Marengo fans.

If Marengo beats Richmond-Burton (15-11, 7-2) next Tuesday, the Rockets will win the conference outright.

"It's a goal to win conference the second year in a row, and then focus in on regional and the state tournament," Harris said.